“A good craftsman never blames his tools”.
This is a very inaccurate phrase when it comes to purchasing art materials! Every artist will have their own materials, equipment and colour palette they tend to use. This all ends up contributing to their style. With so many art materials and brands out there, it can be difficult to know what to purchase. Without knowing if you’ll like a medium, it’s tempting to go for the cheapest options. However, I’d recommend going for something middle of the range.
Unfortunately some of the cheaper materials from supermarkets, pound or gimmicky type stores are poor quality that could end up causing frustration and ultimately put you off the medium completely when you can’t get the effects you desire. I tend to work in pencil, charcoal, pastels, conte crayons and watercolours. Here are the materials I use (please note, that if you purchase any of the materials from these links, I should technically receive a small commission at no extra cost to yourselves)
Drawing in pencil & charcoal kit
I tend to sketch with a thick (5.6mm wide lead) mechanical pencil. They’re great to use for shading as you can very easily and quickly use the side of the lead for shading. If I’m producing a finished pencil artwork, then I use a range (HB – 8B usually) of pure graphite lead pencils.
Various Leads for the Koh-I-noor Clutch Pencil
Willow charcoal (this is the lightest kind of charcoal – use the sticks to shade large areas at a time)
Compressed charcoal (this is the darkest, blackest kind of charcoal – again the sticks are great for shading large areas)
Charcoal pencils (these are brilliant for doing smaller areas and details in conjunction with the sticks)
Electric eraser (this one from Derwent is great for precision and does a great job at bringing back the whites)
A3 white sketch paper (A3 is good – it gives you the option to go larger if you’d like and that’s good practice!)
Toned A3 paper (Toned is great for charcoal, pastels & conte crayons)
Blending stumps (these are for when you want to blend a relatively small area)
Pastels & Conte Pencils
Conte pencils are harder than pastels so they leave less powder behind. I work with pastel blocks and pastel pencils for my pastel work and separately in conte pencils. Don’t confuse oil pastels with soft pastels. Soft pastels are like chalk and much easier to blend than oil pastels – it’s very difficult to produce anything half decent with oil pastels.
Pastel pencils (these Koh-I-noor ones are lovely!)
Conte pencils (I love these, you can get such lovely effects particularly on toned paper!)
Watercolour Brushes
I use primarily three brushes – Daler-Rowney Graduate 10 Round, Daler-Rowney Pointed Wash no. 6 and a Daler-Rowney 1.4 inch sword brush. I also have a travel kit that protects the brushes for when I’m travelling.
Daler-Rowney Graduate Multi-Technique Synthetic brushes
Daler-Rowney Graduate Number 10 Round Synthetic brushes
Watercolour Paper
I’ve used a lot of different papers but my everyday go to is St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford cold press paper. Fabriano also produces excellent paper. Be sure to get 300gm / 140lb paper otherwise it is likely to cockle when you use it!
St Cuthbert’s Mill Bockingford Cold Press paper 300gsm
For my sketchbooks, my favourite to date is Tumuarta’s square watercolour journal
Watercolour Paints
I use a range of different paints in both sets and tubes – Winsor & Newton, St Petersburg White Nights, Daniel Smith. Many people ask whether it’s best to get tubes or pans (the dried paint in the sets you can buy). The fresh paints in tubes are lovely and vibrant and don’t require any water to activate them however if you use only the fresh paint, you can end up wasting paint which you then don’t use. Alternatively, if you get tubes, you can personalise your own palette by purchasing an empty palette and squeezing the tubes into it. This way you don’t end up wasting any paint and you have a much more portable way of painting! However, if you’re starting out you will probably not know which colours will suit you and your style best. You don’t need a lot of colours to be able to produce something special so until you get used to watercolours, I’d get a good quality small set from Winsor & Newton e.g. It’s portable and great for taking out sketching.
Paper towels / flannel
Paper towels are a great way of “fixing” errors and drying off your paintbrush. I also use an old flannel for this.
Water container
You might want to use two water containers – one for washing your brush, the other to use to apply washes to the painting. A collapsible pot is great as it’s portable and you can always keep one in your bag!
Optional extras:
Small atomiser: This can “refresh” paints if you spray them on your watercolour set a minute or two before using. It can also create some interesting effects.
Masking fluid: This is a rubber like fluid that you apply to the paper in order to preserve the whites of the paper (watercolour is translucent so rather than applying an opaque white, traditionally watercolourists will preserve the white of the paper)
Easel: Watercolourists tend not to use upright easels as the water will run! This easel allows you to hold the paper almost horizonally which you might want to invest in if you’d like to stand up and paint
Magic Eraser: This magic eraser is great for removing mistakes in watercolour. It’s like a sponge and somehow it just seems to remove pigment really well, magically really!
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